In 1981, Chris Sharma was born and 5.14a was still five years away from being climbed, but two climbing arcade games had hit the market.

Yes, this is for real. In 981, Taito released Rock Climber and based on this Youtube video, the main objective seems to be to climb and collect points.

In 1980, Nichibutsu released an arcade game called Crazy Climber. As soon as you reach the top of the building, you must get the helicopter to reach you or the helicopter will leave you helpless. There were four different buildings to climb and 99 levels.